LUZERNE COUNTY, PA – At 5:30 AM on Thursday, November 3, Luzerne County 9-1-1 dispatched Hazle Twp. Fire & Rescue and Valley Regional Medic 26 to State Route 924 in the area of the Fuel On Truck Stop in the Humboldt section of Hazle Township for a motor vehicle crash with entrapment.
Chief 141 went responding ad was advised of a car versus tractor trailer with multiple calls reporting “heavy, heavy entrapment” in the car with one person bloodied but conscious in the car.
Subscribe to the Fire & Film newsletter and receive updates in your inbox!
While responding, units were updated that Pennsylvania State Police were on the scene and confirmed the entrapment. Engine 141-3 and Rescue 141 arrived on the scene to find a Toyota Corolla versus tractor trailer directly in front of the business blocking both lanes of northbound travel.
Crews found one male driver trapped in the car and began to go to work. Multiple tools were pulled off the Rescue, Engine 3 and Squad 9. Personnel began with removing the doors of the vehicle followed by the roof.
A State Trooper remained in the vehicle and held c-spine immobilization while rescuers continued to work to cut away the vehicle. EMS arrived on the scene and determined a need to rapidly transport the patient to a trauma center and requested aeromedical be dispatched to the Harwood ball field.
Once the doors and roof were removed from the vehicle, crews were still unable to extricate the patient. Further assessment led to personnel deciding to push the dash off of the patient; hydraulic rams were put into place and began to lift the dash.
Command was notified that all aeromedical services turned down the flight due to poor weather conditions. Harwood fire was redirected from the landing zone to the scene to assist with traffic control. Sheppton-Oneida Fire was dispatched out of Schuylkill County to assist with traffic control as well.
After 31 minutes of being on the scene, rescue personnel were able to put a backboard into the vehicle and successfully pull the victim from the wreckage. The patient was quickly loaded onto a waiting stretcher and placed in Medic 26. Transport was initiated to a trauma center.
A front seat passenger of the car was also taken to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries after she was found self extricated on arrival. The driver of the tractor trailer was not injured in the crash.
While crews were cleaning up, a second crash was dispatched on Route 924 in the area of Veterans Road. Engine 141-2 responded to that scene and found a crash with minor injuries. As crews operated both scenes, 141 Chief was advised 9-1-1 was receiving multiple calls for an additional accident on Interstate 81. Engine 141-2 cleared the second crash and went enroute to the Interstate. While responding, crews were notified of multiple calls reporting multiple vehicles involved including a tractor trailer and entrapment in at least one vehicle. Units arrived to find entrapment and multiple people injured and had to shut the Interstate down.
Harwood and Sheppton firefighters remained on the scene of the original crash directing traffic until the original crash scene was investigated by State Police and cleared up by wreckers. These units cleared shortly after 8AM when the road was re-opened. In addition to the crashes, Hazle Twp. Fire also handled a fire alarm in their first due.
